24 Photos that Spotlight the Dramatic Rise of Ballroom and Drag Culture

It's so much more than vogueing and RuPaul's Drag Race.

By
Arkee Escalera

Jun 1, 2018

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After nearly a century of abuse, over 50,000 unconstitutional arrests, and mainstream society’s perpetual attempts to suppress queer visibility, the underground ballroom culture has, against the odds, been able to flourish as a safe haven for queer expression, stylized femininity, and gender-nonconformity.

Today, thanks to shows like RuPaul's Drag Race and FX's upcoming Pose, the underground ballroom world can seem anything but underground. By pulling back the curtain on the last century of this subculture, it's clear that what once started as a cult of barely 100 participants has faced numerous challenges to find the range of acceptance it now enjoys.

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Wikimedia

In the 1920’s, drag queens and other queer people organized covertly in underground ballrooms.

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The New York Public Library

The ‘Roaring Twenties’ was a period of high fashion. Midwestern flapper style was popular during this period. The underground ballroom scene was one of the only places where queer people could enjoy high fashion and appropriate this particular style.

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Bridgeman Images

Two drag queens wearing classy pearls, subtle makeup, and marcel waves; they are ready for the ball.

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In the 1930's, the underground ballroom scene quickly became a place where one’s queer identity was visible. Mainstream society, however, saw the ballrooms as a place of perversions, accusing the participants of engaging in sexual activities during the balls. Newspapers began covering these stories, with some blaming ballroom goers for the Great Depression.

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Getty Images

Outside of these ballrooms and queer-friendly clubs, drag queens were often arrested. Sometimes, police officers would enter the ballrooms impersonating queer men, baiting the ballroom attenders to conversations about sexual intercourse, then arresting them.

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Getty Images

This continued into the 1940's. Here, two officers arrest a drag queen on the charges of soliciting homosexual intercourse.

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Getty Images

Often, queer people were victims of homophobic hate crimes. Thugs often waited outside of ballrooms and queer-friendly clubs, and violently attacked or harassed the LGBTQ participants. These attacks were typically not reported.

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Getty Images

In the 1950's, queer-friendly clubs, balls, and speakeasies were anything but inclusive to black and brown people.

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Getty Images

While white queer people faced police brutality because of their queerness, black queer people were targeted for their queerness and their blackness. Cops were excessively violent toward colored queer people.

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Getty Images

The Stonewall Riot lasted six days, and then re-emerged (peacefully) for five days after that.

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The LGBT Community Center National History Archive (Collection 26, 24_03)

Important ballroom figures like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera stood at the apex of the Stonewall Riots in 1969, protesting the reprehensible treatment of queer people from law enforcement.

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Getty Images

The Stonewall Riots became violent. Police officers used excessive violence, once hitting a lesbian demonstrator in the head as he forced her inside of the cop car.

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Getty Images

Here underground ballroom participants organize in the streets of Greenwich Village, New York City.

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Everett Collection

In the 1970's, black and latino ballroom culture emerged as a response to the lack of diversity in previous ballrooms, quickly becoming a home to many black and brown LGBTQ people.

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Shutterstock

As a result, voguing became popular. Some of most popular drag queens considered this a form of combating oppression and gaining liberation through movement.

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Shutterstock

Healthcare and HIV medications were seldom available to the communities it affected the worst: black and brown queer people. ACT U –AIDS Activists–conducted a peaceful protest, bringing awareness to this issue.

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Everett Collection

Documentaries like 1990's Paris is Burning highlighted HIV and AIDS, showing how more than half of the ballroom scene was living with the disease.

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Shutterstock

HIV and AIDS testing was made available in the underground ballrooms. People who tested at the door were let in the balls for free.

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Getty Images

Madonna, inspired by black and brown ballroom performers, began using her public platform to popularize voguing. She helped introduce this culture to the mainstream with her 1990 hit "Vogue."

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Krista Schlueter

Ballroom culture evolved, creating a space for black and brown youth to develop and express themselves through voguing, fashion, and stylized-femininity.

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Everett Collection

Today, voguing continues to thrive as a revolutionary dance style.

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Getty Images

It is not uncommon to see a man in drag on television. Shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race showcase ballroom culture. Popular drag queens today all started out in an underground ballroom setting.

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Shutterstock

Laverne Cox, the first openly transgender woman to be nominated for an acting award, began as a drag queen in the underground ballroom scene.

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Shutterstock

Today, underground ballroom culture is anything but underground. During peaceful protests, it is not uncommon to see a group of queer organizers voguing in the street as a form of resistance.

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